US President Donald Trump on Thursday unveiled a fresh round of punishing tariffs on a broad range of imported goods, including 100 percent duties on branded drugs and 25 percent levies on heavy-duty trucks, set to come into force next week.
The latest salvo, which Trump said was to protect the US manufacturing industry and national security, follows sweeping duties on trading partners of up to 50 percent and other targeted levies on imported products such as steel.
The barrage has cast a pall over global growth and paralyzed business decisionmaking around the world, while the US Federal Reserve has said it is also contributing to higher consumer prices in the US.
Photo: AFP
Trump’s latest announcements on Truth Social did not mention whether the new levies would stack on top of existing national tariffs. However, recently struck trade deals with Japan, the EU and the UK include provisions that cap tariffs for specific products like pharmaceuticals.
Tokyo said it was still analyzing the potential impact of the new measures, which Canberra called “unfair” and “unjustified.”
Trump also followed through on a pledge to “bring back” the US’ furniture business, saying he would start charging a 50 percent tariff on imported kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities, and a 30 percent tariff on upholstered furniture. All the new duties take effect from Wednesday next week.
“The reason for this is the large scale ‘FLOODING’ of these products into the United States by other outside Countries,” Trump wrote.
Stocks of pharmaceutical companies across Asia fell as investors reacted to the news, with Australia’s CSL hitting a six-year low, Japan’s Sumitomo Pharma tumbling more than 3 percent, and pharmaceutical indices in Hong Kong and India down more than 1 percent.
An index tracking Chinese-listed furniture makers also dropped about 1 percent.
The new actions are seen as part of the Trump administration’s shift to better-established legal authorities for its tariff actions, given the risks associated with a case before the Supreme Court on the legality of his sweeping global tariffs.
The new 100 percent tariff on any branded or patented pharmaceutical product would apply to all imports unless the company has already broken ground on building a manufacturing plant in the US, Trump said.
Industry group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America said that companies “continue to announce hundreds of billions in new US investments. Tariffs risk those plans.”
The Trump administration has opened a dozen probes into the national security ramifications of imports of wind turbines, airplanes, semiconductors, polysilicon, copper, timber and lumber, and critical minerals to form the basis of new tariffs.
Trump this week announced new probes into personal protective equipment, medical items, robotics and industrial machinery. He previously imposed national security tariffs on steel and aluminum and derivatives, light-duty autos and parts, and copper.
Trump has made the levies a key foreign policy tool, using them to renegotiate trade deals, extract concessions and exert political pressure on other countries.
His administration has played down the impact on consumer prices and touted tariffs as a significant revenue source, with US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent saying Washington could collect US$300 billion by the end of the year.
Some economies that have already struck deals might get a reprieve on the latest duties.
The EU’s deal with the US stipulates it would pay a 15 percent tariff on goods including pharmaceuticals, while Japan has an agreement that its tariff rates would not exceed others, including the EU, Tokyo’s trade negotiator Ryosei Akazawa said yesterday.
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